Cyprus Negotiations

Eide embarks on Shuttle Diplomacy

The UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor to Cyprus Espen Barth Eide was in a flurry of diplomatic meetings yesterday in a bid to assess the mood following the failed talks in Mont Pèlerin, Switzerland last week.

The UN Special Envoy also met with Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Democrat Party Serdar Denktaş and the leader of the main opposition Republican Turkish Party Tufan Erhürman.

On Wednesday Eide will meet with the British Foreign Minister, Boris Johnson, who arrives on the island later today.

After meeting with Eide, Johnson will have separate meetings with Akıncı and Anastasiades, followed by a second meeting with Eide.

Speaking to reporters following a 90 minute meeting with President Mustafa Akıncı, Eide said he did not believe restarting the talks would be an easy feat but the UN was doing its best to help through shuttle diplomacy.

He said that talks had experienced a setback in Mont Pèlerin and that efforts to overcome the current deadlock were continuing……

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“We have not been able to achieve this so far but our meetings to overcome the problem will continue. It will not be easy but we shall be doing all we can through shuttle diplomacy. However it is up to the leaders to decide whether or not they will return to the negotiating table and whether they will plan for the weeks ahead” he said.

He said he felt a strong commitment from both sides to find a way to overcome the obstacle but no one could pretend nothing happened at Mont Pèlerin.

In the afternoon, the UN Special Advisor Espen Barth Eide paid a visit to Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Democrat Party Serdar Denktaş.

Speaking after the visit, Denktaş said that they had conveyed to Eide that their stance regarding the talks was not very positive.

“We conveyed to Mr. Eide the importance of not dragging the process and determining a date for a 5-party conference before the end of the year. It is important that the two leaders meet and to achieve a result one way or the other” he said.

The leader of the main opposition Republican Turkish Party Tufan Erhürman who spoke after meeting with the UN Special Envoy said that they tried to understand what really went wrong at Mont Pèlerin.

“From what we can see and understand is that the talks became an issue of strategy. However the Greek Cypriot side’s stance at Mont Pèlerin which was to take all that it wanted on the territory chapter , leaving only the issue of security and guarantees to the 5-party conference was unacceptable for the Turkish Cypriot side. The Turkish Cypriot side’s sensitivities on the issue of security and guarantees are well known. We conveyed this to Mr. Eide” he said.